There was a LaTrobe Uni climbing trip into Frenchman's in summer 72-73, just before I started climbing. I think they managed to get a food drop, just before those were banned. One prospective trip-member pulled out at the last minute after his mother went to a clairvoyant who predicted that someone would die if he went on the trip and two would die if he didn't. He didn't go.

On 16/01/2013 kieranl wrote:>There was a LaTrobe Uni climbing trip into Frenchman's in summer 72-73,>just before I started climbing. I think they managed to get a food drop,>just before those were banned. One prospective trip-member pulled out at>the last minute after his mother went to a clairvoyant who predicted that>someone would die if he went on the trip and two would die if he didn't.>He didn't go.

On 15/01/2013 Cam McKenzie wrote:>I agree with Simey on this one. I reckon that power drill free ground up>routes are the way to go on an adventurous crag like Frenchman's.>>How many of the established routes would be memorable classics if they>were protected by bolts wherever there wasn't gear for a few metres?

From what i hear degaulles direct may be the best route out there. Im not saying a bolt every few metres. I dont think rap inspection is much good on any of tassies wilderness crags. I do however think hammering the shit out of pins, and leaving them to rust is poor form, but apparently acceptable. I'd rather clip a bolt than look at the shaft of an old pin that the FA used as a solid runner, and now is useless.

Simey, all those route have been climbed without bolts, being the obvious natural lines. Theres a shit tonne of good looking rock that would make some amazing routes. Again im not advocating a sport route, far from it. 40m pitch with 6 runners like some of the euro testpieces is hardly sport climbing IMO! Do i have the technical ability/kahunas? Probably not!!! :)

hey Simon,
I agree that crappy old pegs aren't all that inspiring. Having said that though, I clipped a hell of a lot of them (of varying degrees of age and dodginess) in the Dolomites and kind of got used to it. Different situation to Frenchman's though.

While I can see that the idea of adventurous bolted routes is appealing, it seems that once there's a precedent set, standards drop pretty quickly. I don't know if the euro's are more restrained in bolting their alpine rock routes, or if we just don't hear about the crappy clip ups that get bolted, but it seems like over here (Australia, not Tassie specifically) that as soon as there are bolts placed then it's a slippery slope before squeezed in clip ups start appearing.

While I find it unlikely that something like that would happen at Frenchman's, you never know. Additionally, as someone else pointed out, it's a world heritage area, and it would be very easy for parks to ban climbing there if they got pissed off with climbers antics.

I think that it's much clearer if these wilderness crags have an ethic of 'ground up, minimal if any bolts, hand drilled on lead'. Then there's no (less) room for interpretation.

On 16/01/2013 sliamese wrote:>From what i hear degaulles direct may be the best route out there.

How many people have climbed DeGaulles Direct? Stuff all. And how many of those people have climbed the other routes on that wall?! I don't know how you can possibly make that call!

>I'm not saying a bolt every few metres. I dont think rap inspection is much>good on any of tassies wilderness crags. I do however think hammering the>shit out of pins, and leaving them to rust is poor form, but apparently>acceptable. I'd rather clip a bolt than look at the shaft of an old pin>that the FA used as a solid runner, and now is useless.>>Simey, all those route have been climbed without bolts, being the obvious>natural lines. Theres a shit tonne of good looking rock that would make>some amazing routes. Again im not advocating a sport route, far from it.>40m pitch with 6 runners like some of the euro testpieces is hardly sport>climbing IMO! Do i have the technical ability/kahunas? Probably not!!!>:)

I'm not actually a fan of run-out bolted routes. I reckon they are a wank. If you are going to start bolting climbs then do a decent job of it. However, if you start bolting on Frenchmans with a power tool I guarantee that you will have lines of bolts running up the wall just metres away from the great routes already established. I think it would detract greatly. The climbing world will survive if we don't add bolts to Frenchmans.

>I don't know of anyone climbing up there at the moment. Just getting into>the gorge can be a logistic nightmare, and best go with someone who a)>knows the way, and b) is adept in the art of co/cky sucking. It's national>park but all the access is through farms.

>From my memory, and remember it's not what it used to be, the big things>like the corner left of Wedding Bells was pretty clean. Roofs and overhanging>cracks tend to be OK. Can't vouch for the thing on top of Grey Wall. >>And adventure is state of mind, but I'm not sure everyone's up for it>nowadays. But there is always something out there to do (if you're not>a soft coc/k and take an eperb, support team, sat phone). It's just out>there past the point of no return ... I can show you the way if you like>:)>>

Hi hero
Just found this thread. Yes, there are one or two people still climbing around the Northern Tablelands and yes access has always been an issue. I'm just getting back into it after a 12 year layoff and knee surgery.
Anyone wanting to climb in the area should perhaps contact the UNE climbing club.